Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I’m still intent on getting into the online publishing world but to do so I need some creative and risk tolerant authors (willing to experiment with online publishing models) to be my partners.

The traditional publishing model still works the best for established authors (well, perhaps a few others like Paolo Coelho have thrived by being experimental) but it’s not an easy gig to get for new authors. It also entails giving up control and ownership of your asset, even if the promotional funds for your book are minimal (God bless if you don’t worry about these issues with your draft).

My project is both a labor of love (books in my mind are among the best things on earth) and a practical venture. I had to yank distribution of Captive from the publisher (long story; different post) and learned enough to become a publisher myself. Check out Captive on iTunes! I’m a licensed book seller now. So why not become a publisher? Additionally, a best selling author I know casually broached the idea of me helping him with his online efforts, saying that many authors had only dipped their toes into this world and could also use the help.

Captive has now been downloaded well over 560,000 times and counting. The online promotions built my larger audience but I monetized better using more traditional distribution. We’ll see about going forward. Authors need to do it all (seen my YouTube videos?) yet those other duties making writing that much harder. The decisions on how to promote and related time commitments can be staggering, as I’ve found out first hand. What if your online publisher helped?

I’m almost done with Captive’s sequel and will be playing around with business models once it’s done. Anyone want to join me?

If you’ve written a thriller or other action novel, a political book or a children’s one and want to submit to my in process of being built publishing house email me at meganlisajones1@gmail.com. And feel free to forward this invitation.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I have a loose deadline now on finishing Escape (at page 324 on draft one and keeping this post short so I can get back to writing). I did it to myself by agreeing to finish the book by a certain date (definition of deadline).

Is my willingness to commit, or over commit, a good thing or a bad one? I do this a lot and was actually discussing it with friends at yoga. We were saying that we think we can do it all until we realize that we can’t (by doing something such as missing a deadline).

But dates and deadlines also motivate me and focus my work. I take it more seriously and need that end date to stay on a track. So, it’s a balance between working hard and working well. Writing a book requires creativity, focus and good writing. I believe that writing is easy to force but good writing isn’t.

Most writers used to work on deadline. Many writers still do. Dickens, most of the early great film writers and I’ll stop now because too many names are tumbling into my head and writing them down will overkill the point. Some writers have come up with drafts that prove they weren’t on track to meet their deadline thus rushed to any end (celebrity autobiographies seem to specialize here).

Can I meet my deadline? Should I have committed? I left a lot of extra give time in the schedule (since I never get as much done as I think I will… the holidays are coming… deadlines scare me) so I will.

Good book or bad? Luck, skill and so many intangibles will decide that outcome. I’m not sure that all of the time in the world will help if the basic storyline doesn’t work. So far I like it, but then the ultimate product is a victim or beneficiary of the revisions. And good writing is a very subjective thing.

Deadlines do make writing blog postings harder to fit in so I’ll end this one here. Back to the book!